Edwin R. Garrison - "Lent Is for Rehearsal Thinking" (March 16, 1975)
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Transcript
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(mellow music playing) | 0:03 | |
- | Now unto the king eternal, immortal, | 3:49 |
invisible, the only wise God be honored | 3:53 | |
and gloried forever and ever, amen. | 3:58 | |
Let us pray. | 4:02 | |
Oh the high and lofty one who inhabited eternity, | 4:06 | |
whose name is Holy, | 4:12 | |
who dwellers in the high and holy place, | 4:14 | |
with those also have contrite and humble spirit, | 4:18 | |
speak now thy word to us in Jesus Christ, | 4:22 | |
full of grace and truth. | 4:26 | |
To renew us in humility and faith, | 4:29 | |
and awaken us to new life of grateful devotion, | 4:33 | |
let thy present spirit unite our spirits in true worship, | 4:38 | |
obedient, love, and faithful discipleship. | 4:44 | |
Oh Lord open our lips that our mouths may show forth | 4:49 | |
thy praise through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 4:54 | |
(uplifting music) | 5:04 | |
In the presence of God, in the realization of his goodness | 8:40 | |
and his grace, in company with one another, | 8:46 | |
we offer our unison prayer of confession. | 8:52 | |
Let us pray. | 8:55 | |
Forgive us oh Lord. | 9:00 | |
We acknowledge ourselves as type of the common man, | 9:02 | |
of the men and women who shut the door and sit by the fire, | 9:06 | |
who fear the blessing of God, | 9:11 | |
the loneliness of the night of God. | 9:14 | |
The surrender required the deprivation inflicted, | 9:17 | |
who fear the injustice of men less than the justice of God, | 9:22 | |
who fear the hand at the window, the fire in the thatch, | 9:28 | |
the fist in the tavern, the push into the canal, | 9:33 | |
less than we fear the love of God. | 9:38 | |
We acknowledge our trespass, our weakness, our fault. | 9:42 | |
We acknowledge that the sin of the world is upon our heads, | 9:49 | |
that the blood of martyrs and the agony of his saints | 9:54 | |
is upon our heads. | 9:59 | |
Lord have mercy upon us, | 10:02 | |
Christ have mercy upon us, | 10:05 | |
Lord have mercy up on us. | 10:10 | |
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, | 10:26 | |
and God our father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort | 10:29 | |
and good hope through grace. | 10:35 | |
Comfort our hearts and establish them | 10:38 | |
in every good work and word, amen. | 10:41 | |
(uplifting music) | 10:53 | |
♪ We sing to him whose wisdom ♪ | 11:51 | |
♪ Our songs let him who gave us voices hear ♪ | 11:59 | |
♪ We joy in God, who is the spring of mirth ♪ | 12:09 | |
♪ Who loves the harmony of heaven and earth ♪ | 12:17 | |
♪ Our humble sonnets shall that praise rehearse ♪ | 12:27 | |
♪ Who is the music of the universe ♪ | 12:36 | |
♪ And whilst we sing, and whilst we sing ♪ | 12:47 | |
♪ We consecrate our art ♪ | 12:51 | |
♪ And offer up with every tongue a heart ♪ | 12:55 | |
♪ And whilst we sing, and whilst we sing ♪ | 13:00 | |
♪ We consecrate our art ♪ | 13:06 | |
♪ And offer up and offer up, with every tongue a heart ♪ | 13:10 | |
♪ And whilst we sing, and whilst we sing ♪ | 13:19 | |
♪ We consecrate our art ♪ | 13:24 | |
♪ And offer up and offer up, with every tongue a heart ♪ | 13:29 | |
- | The old Testament lesson is found in the book of Isaiah, | 13:59 |
the 53rd chapter. | 14:03 | |
Who has believed what we have heard | 14:08 | |
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed, | 14:11 | |
For he grew up before him like a young plant | 14:16 | |
and like a root out of dry ground. | 14:20 | |
He had no form or comeliness that we should look at him | 14:23 | |
and no beauty that we should desire him. | 14:28 | |
He was despised and rejected by men, | 14:32 | |
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. | 14:36 | |
And as one from whom men hide their faces, | 14:40 | |
he was despised and we esteemed him not. | 14:43 | |
Surely he has born our and carried our sorrows. | 14:48 | |
Yet, we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted, | 14:54 | |
but he was wounded for our transgressions, | 15:01 | |
he was bruised for our iniquities. | 15:04 | |
upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, | 15:07 | |
and with his stripes, we are healed. | 15:11 | |
All we like sheep have gone astray, | 15:16 | |
we've turned everyone to his own way. | 15:19 | |
And the Lord has laid on him, the iniquity of us all, | 15:22 | |
he was oppressed and he was afflicted. | 15:27 | |
Yet, he opened not his mouth, | 15:31 | |
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter | 15:34 | |
and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb. | 15:36 | |
So he opened not his mouth. | 15:40 | |
By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. | 15:44 | |
And as for his generation who considered that he was cut off | 15:48 | |
out of the land of the living stricken for the transgression | 15:53 | |
of my people. | 15:57 | |
And they made his grave with the wicked | 15:59 | |
and with a rich man in his death, | 16:01 | |
although he had done no violence and there was no deceit | 16:04 | |
in his mouth, yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise him, | 16:09 | |
he has put him to grief. | 16:16 | |
When he makes himself an offering for sin, | 16:19 | |
he shall see his offspring, | 16:22 | |
he shall prolong his days. | 16:25 | |
The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand, | 16:27 | |
he shall see the fruit of the travel | 16:31 | |
of his soul and be satisfied. | 16:33 | |
By his knowledge shall the righteous one, | 16:36 | |
my servant make many to be accounted righteous | 16:39 | |
and he shall bear their iniquities. | 16:43 | |
Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great, | 16:47 | |
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, | 16:51 | |
because he poured out his soul to death | 16:55 | |
and was numbered with the transgressors. | 16:58 | |
Yet he bore the sin of many and made intercession | 17:01 | |
for the transgressors. | 17:06 | |
That's a stand for the reading of the gospel. | 17:10 | |
The gospel lesson is from the 16th chapter of the gospel | 17:21 | |
according to Matthew, the 13th through the 25th verses. | 17:25 | |
Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, | 17:32 | |
he asked his disciples, | 17:37 | |
"Who do men say that the son of man is?" | 17:39 | |
And they said, "Some say John, the Baptist, | 17:43 | |
others say Elijah and others, Jeremiah, | 17:46 | |
or one of the prophets." | 17:50 | |
And he said to them, "And who do you say that I am?" | 17:52 | |
Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, | 17:57 | |
the son of the living God." | 18:01 | |
And Jesus answered him, | 18:04 | |
"Blessed are you Simon Bar Jonah for flesh and blood | 18:06 | |
has not revealed this to you, | 18:11 | |
but my father who is in heaven, | 18:14 | |
and I tell you, you are Peter. | 18:17 | |
And on this rock, | 18:21 | |
I will build my church and the powers of death | 18:23 | |
shall not prevail against it. | 18:25 | |
I will give you the keys of the kingdom | 18:28 | |
and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. | 18:31 | |
And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." | 18:34 | |
Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one, | 18:38 | |
but he was the Christ. | 18:42 | |
From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples | 18:45 | |
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things | 18:48 | |
from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed. | 18:52 | |
And on the third day he raised and Peter took him | 18:58 | |
and began to rebuke him saying, "God forbid, Lord, | 19:01 | |
this shall never happen to you." | 19:05 | |
But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan, | 19:08 | |
you are a hindrance to me for you are not on the side | 19:13 | |
of God, but of men." | 19:15 | |
Then Jesus told his disciples. | 19:19 | |
"If any man would come after me, | 19:21 | |
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, | 19:24 | |
for whoever would save his life will lose it. | 19:32 | |
And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." | 19:36 | |
Amen. | 19:43 | |
(uplifting music) | 19:45 | |
Let us affirm our faith. | 20:29 | |
We are not alone. | 20:33 | |
We live in God's world. | 20:35 | |
We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 20:38 | |
who has come in the true man Jesus | 20:44 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 20:47 | |
who works in us and others by his spirit. | 20:50 | |
We trust him, he calls us to be his church, | 20:55 | |
to celebrate his precedence, | 21:00 | |
to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, | 21:02 | |
to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 21:08 | |
our judge and our hope in life, in death, | 21:13 | |
in life beyond death. | 21:18 | |
God is with us we are not alone. | 21:21 | |
Thanks be to God. | 21:25 | |
The Lord be with you. | 21:28 | |
Let us pray. | 21:32 | |
Oh, eternal God our creator and our father | 21:44 | |
who has given us life in this thy world, | 21:50 | |
among thy many peoples and nations, | 21:52 | |
we praise and bless thee for thy good earth | 21:57 | |
on which we constantly depend | 22:01 | |
for the sustaining of our life. | 22:03 | |
and thus depend on thee. | 22:06 | |
Keep us responsible and faithful in this thankfulness | 22:09 | |
that we may not selfishly destroy | 22:17 | |
and exploit this one earth. | 22:18 | |
And move us all God to share its blessings | 22:22 | |
with all thy needy children, now, and yet to come. | 22:26 | |
Oh God creator, we thank thee for giving us life together | 22:31 | |
in deep belongings to families and communities, | 22:37 | |
through which our needs are met, our love we vote. | 22:43 | |
The welfare of thy children served and justice sought, | 22:47 | |
enable us to know our belonging to all peoples | 22:54 | |
and to seek for ways to live in peace and joy together. | 22:57 | |
Oh God creator we're grateful for the gift of minds | 23:04 | |
to seek understanding of thy world, | 23:08 | |
of thy truth of thy ways among us, | 23:11 | |
for the heritage of human learning and the faithfulness | 23:15 | |
to fact, and the search for further light. | 23:20 | |
Let our knowledge and understanding become wisdom | 23:25 | |
in thy way that we may know what is good for all | 23:29 | |
and follow it for their sake. | 23:35 | |
Oh eternal God manifests savingly in Jesus Christ, our Lord, | 23:39 | |
that life which was the light of all mankind. | 23:45 | |
We praise thee for the new life together, | 23:50 | |
to which he brings us in which he incorporates us, | 23:55 | |
in which he constantly calls us to deny ourselves | 24:00 | |
and take up our cross and follow him. | 24:05 | |
Save us then oh Lord from petty preoccupation, | 24:10 | |
with our enjoyments our privileges our fulfillments, | 24:15 | |
our needs, and disturb and change us | 24:22 | |
to self giving devotion, | 24:25 | |
to sharing in his ministry of reconciliation, | 24:28 | |
of going about doing good, of seeking and helping the lost, | 24:31 | |
and troubled, and suffering. | 24:37 | |
Oh eternal God present spirit | 24:41 | |
working here among us in the establishing guiding reforming | 24:45 | |
of thy church, awaken us to thy presence | 24:52 | |
and remake us for the tasks committed to us. | 24:57 | |
Let thy spirit bring to light our sin, | 25:02 | |
challenge our complacency rebuke and transform | 25:07 | |
our prejudice, illuminates our blindness with new sight, | 25:13 | |
to see our ways and thy way, | 25:18 | |
move us to love and serve together. | 25:22 | |
Let thy spirit give comfort and strength | 25:29 | |
to those in suffering and despair in discouragement | 25:34 | |
and failure, in temptation and sin. | 25:39 | |
Let thy spirit strengthen all those who minister | 25:46 | |
to such needs of body and spirit in hospital, | 25:49 | |
home, or church, | 25:52 | |
speaking or doing thy healing, helping work. | 25:54 | |
give us that vulnerable openness | 26:00 | |
to the struggles, the poverty, the famine, | 26:04 | |
and starvation of thy troubled children in this world, | 26:07 | |
that we may be continually awakened to profound concern, | 26:12 | |
intelligent caring, sacrificial sharing | 26:17 | |
of the goods of life, we so boundlessly enjoy. | 26:21 | |
Give us the joy of new life in this ministering community | 26:26 | |
that we may help one another to restrain our self seeking | 26:32 | |
to sharpen our sensitivity, | 26:38 | |
to envision vine mission and ministry for us, | 26:39 | |
following him who came not to be ministered unto, | 26:44 | |
but to minister and to give his life | 26:48 | |
for the new life of others. | 26:51 | |
And now as our savior Christ has taught us, | 26:55 | |
we pray together. | 26:59 | |
Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, | 27:01 | |
thy kingdom come, | 27:07 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 27:09 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 27:14 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 27:17 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us | 27:20 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 27:23 | |
but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom | 27:26 | |
and the power and the glory forever, amen. | 27:29 | |
- | In the name of the father and of the son | 27:51 |
and of the holy spirit, amen. | 27:55 | |
Passenger train rolling across Northern Indiana | 28:03 | |
struck a gasoline truck and tank trailers | 28:07 | |
splitting them apart. | 28:10 | |
The diesel was drenched with burning gasoline, | 28:13 | |
there was a furious fire on either side of the track, | 28:17 | |
but the train ran on until the last car | 28:21 | |
had cleared the blazing crossing. | 28:25 | |
The critically burned engineer could not be quieted | 28:29 | |
until he was assured that all the passengers were safe. | 28:35 | |
And then he said, "Well, thank God, thank God, | 28:40 | |
for years, I have imagined this kind of an accident, | 28:46 | |
and I had always known that if it did happen, | 28:50 | |
I must never touched the brakes until the last coach | 28:57 | |
had passed the fire." | 29:02 | |
He had imagined he had projected himself into the situation, | 29:07 | |
he had made up his mind. | 29:15 | |
It was this rehearsal thinking which had saved lives | 29:19 | |
in the moment of crisis. | 29:24 | |
Well, of course we do rehearsal thinking every day, | 29:29 | |
I suppose, in all kinds of situations, | 29:31 | |
preparation for exams at its best is not panic, cramming, | 29:36 | |
but thoughtful consideration of what is the essence | 29:41 | |
of the course. | 29:43 | |
Before the excitement of the ball game, | 29:46 | |
the team members quietly think through their strategy, | 29:49 | |
the surgeon scrubbing before the operation, | 29:55 | |
reviews his procedures and lamp provides opportunity | 29:59 | |
for our rehearsal thinking about the ultimate issues | 30:05 | |
of our lives. | 30:09 | |
As we watched Jesus press toward Jerusalem and the cross, | 30:12 | |
we project ourselves into the scene. | 30:17 | |
We are there with the disciples, listening to Jesus. | 30:22 | |
Those 12 persons wanted to follow Jesus, | 30:28 | |
but they were afraid of what people would say, so are we. | 30:32 | |
They bought the idea that the Messiah would come | 30:37 | |
as a conquering hero to make everything all right. | 30:42 | |
Often our idea of God is a kind of a big daddy. | 30:48 | |
We see what happened to Jesus and his disciples. | 30:54 | |
And we ask ourselves, am I ready for that? | 30:57 | |
For one thing, we need this rehearsal thinking | 31:07 | |
because we've so much inner conflict. | 31:09 | |
St. Paul call on Christians to be good soldiers | 31:14 | |
of Jesus Christ. | 31:17 | |
But they experienced that a good many of us have | 31:19 | |
is that we're more like a battlefield than soldiers | 31:22 | |
with our good and evil impulses fighting | 31:26 | |
for the mastery of our soul. | 31:29 | |
Our interior battle is personified in the dramatic | 31:33 | |
confrontation between Jesus and Peter. | 31:37 | |
Jesus was saying that he must suffer many things | 31:41 | |
and be killed. | 31:44 | |
When Peter blurted, "God forbid, Lord, | 31:46 | |
this shall never happen to you. | 31:50 | |
The masters reply is akin to violence. | 31:55 | |
"Get thy behind me, you Satan, you're a hindrance to me, | 31:59 | |
you're not on the side of God, but of men." | 32:04 | |
The vehemence of Jesus is all the more startling | 32:09 | |
because moments before he had praise Peter | 32:12 | |
for his declaration of faith, that Jesus was the Messiah. | 32:16 | |
But Peter had used the term Messiah in the context | 32:23 | |
of his inherited belief. | 32:28 | |
That Messiah would be an invincible military leader | 32:30 | |
come to set the people free, | 32:34 | |
suffering had no place in that picture. | 32:37 | |
My rehearsal thinking reveals that this conflict | 32:43 | |
is a battle front that runs right through my life. | 32:46 | |
On the one hand, I feel that Jesus was right, | 32:50 | |
that he who takes a sword, | 32:55 | |
will perish by the sword, | 32:57 | |
that the meek do inherit the earth. | 33:01 | |
That the people who really experience abiding joy | 33:03 | |
and a sense of fulfillment, are the humble, the merciful, | 33:06 | |
the pure in heart, | 33:13 | |
the kind of people who show Goodwill even to their enemies, | 33:15 | |
yet they're persecuted, jailed, killed, | 33:20 | |
the cost frightens me. | 33:26 | |
On the other hand, I want ease and pleasure, | 33:29 | |
there are hungry people everywhere. I know, | 33:34 | |
but I wanna eat my fill, | 33:38 | |
I don't wanna make sacrifices for the people | 33:39 | |
on the other side of the tracks. | 33:42 | |
I want my children to go to the top, | 33:45 | |
no matter who's head they bruise or hearts they break. | 33:48 | |
If I got ahead by pushing other people around what happened? | 33:53 | |
I have no bleeding heart. | 33:57 | |
So the battle rages between my two selves, | 34:02 | |
as I survey the passion of Jesus and consider | 34:07 | |
my response to it. | 34:11 | |
Watching the drama unfold, | 34:16 | |
I see that Jesus was tempted and tried as I am. | 34:17 | |
Right down, to Gethsemane he prayed that the cross | 34:23 | |
might not be necessary, | 34:26 | |
you remember his temptation in the wilderness. | 34:29 | |
He could have ease and power. | 34:33 | |
If only he would bow to the methods of the world. | 34:36 | |
Jesus had settled that long ago, | 34:41 | |
but now comes Peter harping on the same tool | 34:45 | |
as if to say, "Play it safe Jesus," | 34:50 | |
small wonder the master spoke sharply, | 34:55 | |
"Out of my sight, you Satan." | 34:59 | |
I am helped when I remember that Jesus experienced | 35:04 | |
inner conflicts like mine. | 35:08 | |
In the second place, we need this rehearsal thinking | 35:12 | |
to help us count the cost of discipleship. | 35:15 | |
When Jesus asks us to deny ourselves, | 35:19 | |
he's doing more than asking us to do without | 35:24 | |
meat during lamb, our social events. | 35:28 | |
He's speaking to our pension for keeping ourself | 35:32 | |
at the center of attention at all costs. | 35:36 | |
Ever come to think of it? | 35:42 | |
Even our social problems are variations of the human | 35:44 | |
tendency to grab all the advantages we can grab | 35:47 | |
and deny them to others. | 35:51 | |
What else is discrimination of race or class, | 35:53 | |
but a form of closed society, | 35:57 | |
which it shows advantages to some people, | 35:59 | |
why enforcing disadvantages on other people? | 36:02 | |
So in our rehearsal thinking, | 36:08 | |
the fundamental charge we must make | 36:11 | |
is whether from this point in time, | 36:14 | |
we will live as beasts of prey or as children of God, | 36:17 | |
obligated to humankind. | 36:23 | |
Of course, sometimes we think we can have it both ways. | 36:29 | |
Once upon a time, | 36:34 | |
there was a contractor who built a church | 36:35 | |
for a highly emotional congregation, | 36:40 | |
and then he couldn't get them to pay for it. | 36:42 | |
He decided to scare them into honesty | 36:46 | |
and he rented an iridescent devil suit complete with fork, | 36:48 | |
tail and spear. | 36:53 | |
And one Sunday night, | 36:56 | |
when the preacher had been threatening the congregation | 36:57 | |
with hell and fire, the builder, | 37:00 | |
all that doubt and his new outfit pulled the master switch | 37:01 | |
and bounded down the aisle, pandemonium broke out, | 37:05 | |
people streaked and ran for the doors. | 37:11 | |
One little lady stumbled and fell at his feet. | 37:14 | |
The disguise builder loomed threateningly over her | 37:18 | |
with his trident spear in his hand, straggling to her knees. | 37:24 | |
She said in a quavering voice, "Oh Mr devil, hear me please. | 37:28 | |
I bake more cakes, washed more dishes, | 37:35 | |
sold more rummage than any other woman in this church. | 37:38 | |
But all the time I've been on your side." | 37:41 | |
(congregation laughing) | 37:45 | |
Like the little lady, | 37:49 | |
we try to work both sides of the street. | 37:50 | |
We gloss over the persistent teaching of Jesus | 37:55 | |
that whoever would save his life will lose it, | 37:58 | |
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. | 38:01 | |
Mark you, if you back away from sacrifice, | 38:08 | |
you back away from God. | 38:11 | |
Discipleship requires the denial of self. | 38:16 | |
And Jesus said, "Take up your cross." | 38:24 | |
The cross is a symbol of the punishment you take | 38:31 | |
from people who have a stake in keeping things as they are, | 38:34 | |
or you take it from neutral people who would condone | 38:40 | |
any monstrous wrong rather than risk their safety | 38:43 | |
to stop the wrong. | 38:47 | |
As James Baldwin reminds us, | 38:50 | |
civilization is not destroyed by wicked people. | 38:53 | |
It's not necessary to be that people be wicked, | 38:57 | |
but only that they be spineless | 39:01 | |
or put it another way. | 39:07 | |
The cross is a metalanguage of being abandoned | 39:10 | |
by persons whom we had thought we could depend on | 39:13 | |
to understand and support us. | 39:17 | |
As Isaiah said of the suffering servant, | 39:22 | |
he was despised and rejected by men, | 39:25 | |
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. | 39:29 | |
And we hid, as it were our faces from him, | 39:32 | |
he was despised and we esteemed him not. | 39:36 | |
But whatever form it takes, | 39:41 | |
the cross falls in the line of obedient discipleship. | 39:45 | |
You take it up, it is service and care. | 39:50 | |
The cross is not something that befalls you by accident | 39:57 | |
or without your consent. | 40:01 | |
You have your Gethsemane where you face the appalling | 40:05 | |
fact that discipleship means not so much making a sacrifice | 40:10 | |
as being the sacrifice. | 40:17 | |
And then, and there you say yes or no, | 40:22 | |
it's as simple, and as terrible as that. | 40:29 | |
Martin Luther king Jr. described an experience | 40:38 | |
during the Montgomery bus protest. | 40:41 | |
He had received many telephone threats, | 40:45 | |
which he had dismissed as the work of crank. | 40:47 | |
But one night after his wife had gone to sleep, | 40:51 | |
he received a particularly savage threat. | 40:53 | |
Later he wrote about it. | 40:58 | |
He said, "I hung up, but I could not sleep. | 41:00 | |
It seemed that all my fears had come down on me at once. | 41:06 | |
I had reached the saturation point. | 41:10 | |
I got out of bed and began to walk the floor. | 41:13 | |
Finally, I went down to the kitchen | 41:18 | |
and made a pot of coffee. | 41:20 | |
I was ready to give up. | 41:23 | |
I tried to think of a way to move out of the picture | 41:26 | |
without appearing to be a coward, | 41:30 | |
in this state of exhaustion, | 41:34 | |
my courage had almost gone. | 41:36 | |
Then I decided to take my problem to God. | 41:40 | |
My head in my hands, | 41:44 | |
I bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud | 41:45 | |
the words I spoke to God that midnight are still vivid | 41:49 | |
in my memory." | 41:54 | |
He writes, "Oh Lord, I'm here taking a stand | 41:56 | |
for what I believe is right, | 41:58 | |
but now I'm afraid the people are looking | 42:01 | |
to me for leadership. | 42:06 | |
And if I stand before them without strength | 42:08 | |
and courage, they'll folder. | 42:11 | |
I am at the end of my power, I have nothing left. | 42:16 | |
I've come to the point where I can't face it alone." | 42:22 | |
He continues, "At that moment. | 42:28 | |
I experienced the presence of the divine as never before. | 42:32 | |
It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance | 42:37 | |
of an inner voice saying, 'Stand up for righteousness, | 42:40 | |
stand up for truth, God will be on your side forever.' | 42:45 | |
Almost at once my fears began to pass from me. | 42:53 | |
My uncertainty disappeared. | 42:58 | |
I was ready to face anything. | 43:02 | |
The outer situation remains the same, | 43:06 | |
but God has given me an inner calm." | 43:09 | |
That was Martin Luther King's Gethsemane. | 43:15 | |
The fundamentals were saddled, | 43:21 | |
the rest of his life was commentary, | 43:26 | |
but above all, let us remember this, | 43:32 | |
bearing, the cross is not unmitigated pain and sorrow. | 43:36 | |
The letter to Hebrews says of Jesus who for the joy | 43:43 | |
that was set before him endured the cross. | 43:47 | |
cross bearing isn't aggressive thrusting of one self | 43:52 | |
into a crucial situation whose outcome matters | 43:58 | |
more than life. | 44:03 | |
And it brings its own reward, a deep sense of fulfillment. | 44:06 | |
I'm one of four sons, as youngsters we were disorganized | 44:15 | |
hot tempered, ready to resort to our fists. | 44:21 | |
Our parents almost gave up hope for us, | 44:26 | |
almost, but they never did thank God. | 44:30 | |
In later years, I tried to tell my father | 44:35 | |
that I had begun to realize what a costly process | 44:38 | |
it had been for him. | 44:43 | |
With a Misty smile, he simply said, | 44:46 | |
"Well, that's the joy of being a father." | 44:50 | |
Rehearsal thinking is decision-making, | 44:57 | |
whether it's the engineer and the cam, | 45:02 | |
the surgeon as he scrubs, or you here now. | 45:05 | |
You look ahead, make up your mind. | 45:15 | |
Jesus said, "If anyone would be my disciple, | 45:20 | |
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." | 45:26 | |
You are the only person qualified to say | 45:34 | |
what that entails for you, and you say yes or no. | 45:38 | |
Let us pray. | 45:54 | |
Oh, our father God grant that there may be some person | 46:03 | |
here this day who we'll have the grace to say to you. | 46:10 | |
"Yes, I will take up my cross and follow you," amen. | 46:19 | |
(uplifting music) | 46:35 | |
♪ In the hour of my distress ♪ | 49:24 | |
♪ When my temptations me opress ♪ | 49:30 | |
♪ And when my sins confess ♪ | 49:36 | |
♪ Sweet spirit comfort me ♪ | 49:42 | |
♪ When I lie in my bed, sick in heart and sick in head ♪ | 49:54 | |
♪ And with doubt discomforted ♪ | 50:06 | |
♪ Sweet spirit comfort me ♪ | 50:12 | |
♪ And the house doth sigh and weep ♪ | 50:23 | |
♪ And the world is drowned in sleep ♪ | 50:30 | |
♪ Yet my eyes the watch do keep ♪ | 50:36 | |
♪ Sweet spirit comfort me ♪ | 50:44 | |
♪ When the passing bell doth toll ♪ | 51:00 | |
♪ And the Furies in a shoal ♪ | 51:05 | |
♪ Come to fright a parting soul ♪ | 51:12 | |
♪ Sweet Spirit, comfort me ♪ | 51:18 | |
♪ When the tapers now burn blue ♪ | 51:35 | |
♪ And the comforters are few ♪ | 51:42 | |
♪ And that number more than true ♪ | 51:49 | |
♪ Sweet Spirit, comfort me ♪ | 51:55 | |
♪ When the Judgment is revealed ♪ | 52:11 | |
♪ And that open's which was sealed ♪ | 52:21 | |
♪ When to Thee I have appealed ♪ | 52:31 | |
♪ Sweet Spirit, comfort me ♪ | 52:43 | |
(uplifting music) | 53:09 | |
Thine oh Lord is the greatness and the power | 54:39 | |
and the glory and the victory and the majesty | 54:44 | |
for all that is in the heaven | 54:47 | |
and then the earth is thine. | 54:49 | |
Thine is the kingdom oh Lord, and thou art exalted | 54:53 | |
as head above all, amen. | 54:56 | |
(uplifting music) | 55:03 | |
Now to him who by the power at work within us | 58:51 | |
is able to do far more abundantly | 58:55 | |
than all that we ask or think. | 58:57 | |
To him, be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus | 59:01 | |
to all generations, forever and ever. | 59:05 | |
The grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, | 59:11 | |
be with you all, amen. | 59:14 | |
(bell chimes) | 59:24 | |
(uplifting music) | 59:42 |
Item Info
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